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Disclaimer: Author Keirsten Greggs is an industry Influencer and received compensation for this article. For more information on Keirsten or Trap Recruiter, find her on Twitter or LinkedIn @TrapRecruiter.
Over the past several weeks as HR and Talent Acquisition Professionals have worked tirelessly to craft timely, effective and actionable responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve observed several major themes:
- TA/Recruiting leaders reacting in a way that will sustain only in the short-term and shows uncertainty is causing them to shy away from stretch goals and long-term solutions
- More emphasis focused on HR functions (excluding TA) and current employees and not enough attention dedicated to how Talent Acquisition/Recruiting activities will be impacted
- A need for 2020 Recruiting Strategies to be scrapped and/or redesigned.
I’ve shared my observations and knowledge exchanged with a number of my peers and advisers in an effort to gain a clearer perspective and chart a path forward communally. I spoke with two TA Leaders who concluded that the first step to getting a handle of the chaos is to (re)establish Trust.
Stephen Covey advised, “The first job of a leader—at work or at home—is to inspire trust. It’s to bring out the best in people by entrusting them with meaningful stewardships, and to create an environment in which high-trust interaction inspires creativity and possibility.”
We agreed that the TA leaders’ distrust was rooted in the following:
1) The belief that recruiters are ill-equipped to manage the recruiting process virtually and work independently.
2) The leaders themselves who have gotten too far removed from day to day tactical execution so they can’t visualize how to recruit virtually, strategically and differently.
During this challenging time, it is imperative for recruiting leaders to model trust. Trust their abilities and be confident they can effectively manage a virtual team and when/if necessary be hands-on and able to perform as a recruiter. Trust their instincts and be confident that they hired the best team and can maximize the team members’ individual and collective strengths. Trust the process and be confident that their recruiting process works, eliminates any waste that exists to ensure efficiency and that they projected for long-term growth.
While trust is the foundation for all relationships, Relationship Building is the foundation of recruiting. Relationships are built with effective communication, both internally and externally. Recruiters are the first point of contact for prospective employees and set the tone for the candidate experience. They also play an integral part in helping to shape the organizational culture by how and where they go about attracting talent and who they choose to move forward for consideration. Key relationships include:
- Recruiters must continue to build relationships cross-functionally to ensure the hiring process continues with minimal disruptions.
- Recruiters must build stronger relationships within their teams by tapping into recruiters who typically work on contingent/unfunded requisitions as their recruiting methods will prove to be beneficial in this climate.
- Recruiters must reach outside of their organization and build relationships with recruiters in organizations who are downsizing have available talent pools who can fill their openings.
As the employment landscape continues to shift, it will become increasingly important that recruiting functions incorporate and reflect on the following Accountability characteristics:
- Responsibility
- Answerability
- Trustworthiness
- Liability
- Learning
- Tracking
- Urgency
- Reputation
- Evolving
The time is now to set expectations, adjust timelines to accommodate recruiters and job seekers, adjust the way jobs are posted and interviews are conducted, decide what to do with new hires waiting to start and prospective hires awaiting offers and set regular touch points to communicate changes and updates.
Once the curve flattens and we settle in to the new normal, recruiting teams will be looking for tools that promote a Proactive Approach to help them establish strategic hiring plans, evaluate the success of their processes, and track for long term growth. Talview’s Instahiring experience solution is one such tool that is a value add that integrates with your ATS and offers features that allow recruiting teams to be both High Tech and High Touch. Some of the key features include:
- Supports quantity (increase in availability) PLUS quality approach and allows you to evaluate more candidates
- Supports virtual/remote recruiting
- Reduces scheduling conflicts
- Automates repetitive tasks to speed up the recruitment process
- Reduces bias while incorporating assessments that help you get a better understanding of candidates’ personalities
- Helps manage the backlogged talent pool of candidates from roles that were put on hold, candidates that fell out of process and/or took other jobs, candidates who were not top choice but may be fits now with adjusted requirements and candidates’ skill improvement
- Allows internal talent and recent hires to remain in play during surge activities.
COVID-19 is impacting every part of our lives including how we work. Change is an inevitable constant and how we respond to change determines if the end result is growth and forward movement. If we do as Socrates said and focus our energy on building the new, we’ll be setting ourselves up to come out of this better than we went in.
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